I have just read a fascinating article on the BBC which I think others in this group may be interested in - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programme...ts/6591835.stm - it explains how in Mauritania fat women with lots of stretch marks are considered the most attractive and so women are force fed and take steroids to gain weight. The article also explains about how these women are now having serious health problems.
That was very odd- yet informative. The first thing I thought and did after reading the article was - wow... I'd be a Goddess. However, our westernized version of beautiful women could very well propel them over the line of thin into starving for BS beauty.
I also found the article odd. And disturbing. Really, really disturbing. Why can't people just let people be what they are? Why do they have to force feed them to get to be a certain way? And an unhealthy way at that. As if looks are the determining factor in measuring a person's worth. I just don't get it.
I have a friend from Jamaica who also feels pressure to be bigger (to have a large behind in particular) to the extent that she and her other Jamaican friends take tablets made of chicken fat to help the process - I find it fascinating how different cultures view beauty.
I read a book in my college Young Adult Lit class called The Fattening Hut by Pat Lowery Collins. And it's about this young girl, Helen who is about 14 i think, and is promised to this older man but he thinks she's too skinny, so she is sent to the fattening hut to be fed and turned into a "woman". its a very interesting book really.
In almost every culture,the first rule is "You gotta look good!" Although "good" differs. Physical attractiveness is generally listed in top 3 qualities men and women list as desired in a mate, and many studies seem to hint that for most men and women, it is actually #1 (undesireable traits will be overlooked or excused if a person is "hot" enough).
What I think is amazing is that it is so "shocking" when we see it in another culture with different beauty standards, but don't give it a secon thought in our own. Liposuction, plastic surgery, crash diets, eating disorders.... We're not tying our daughters down and making them conform to the beauty standard, we're expecting them to do it on their own (and it usually works).
Imagine you had a very bizarre health condition in which you would become very ill if you didn't maintain a severely obese weight. Or a condition in which being "healthy" meant being otherwise disfigured. Could you hold your head up high, or would you hide in the shadows, or maybe even sacrifice your health in order to "try" to be normal?
Oh kaplods, that reminds of an Orson Welles film where the ugliest woman in the world was considered horribly disfigured because she didn't have a pig's snout for a nose like the rest of the population.
ps. As I guess the resident anthropologist, I agree with you completely.
Whoa! Read both articles and found myself thinking of the female circumcision I heard about for the first time a few years ago. The women perform this on the little girls. I have been upset about it since I heard about it!
I "get" the logic from the marriage standpoint and how the families want their daughters to be desired, but I just can't wrap my brain around the "deeds" that they do to accomplish their goal!
Whoa! Read both articles and found myself thinking of the female circumcision I heard about for the first time a few years ago. The women perform this on the little girls. I have been upset about it since I heard about it!
I "get" the logic from the marriage standpoint and how the families want their daughters to be desired, but I just can't wrap my brain around the "deeds" that they do to accomplish their goal!
Cheryl
Female circumcision is an entirely different beast. Whatīs worse is that it was a dying practice until groups of missionaries tried stopping it. Now itīs called a "fundamental tradition" and a cornerstone of certain peopleīs culture, even though it really wasnīt.
haha! That Nacirema article is about Americans, and our weird culture with dentists. Every time I had to take an anthro class they made us read it. Nacirema=American. Cute.
Dying to be FAT
culture:
Read both articles and found myself thinking of the female circumcision I heard about for the first time a few years ago. The women perform this on the little girls. I have been upset about it since I heard about it! 
